Saturday, November 24, 2012

I respect White Supremacist websites such as Stormfront, Chimpout, and Niggermania. I do not like them; their public is my enemy; and the White Nationalists who frequent such sites have no love for me either.

If I were a White Conservative who listened to Rush Limbaugh, watched Fox News, and frequented Drudge, I would likely be possessed of a great level of anxiety and fear about the Black Muslim usurper President and his black hoard that waylays good white people on Black Friday.

In the spirit of "real talk": if my news and media diet was only drawn from such sources I would hate black people too. I would do so without apology. Racism would be my standing decision rule. However, I would not call it racism. My bigotry would be couched in the language of "reasonable prejudgment."

I would also arm myself in preparation for the Negro Jubilee--an event aided and abetted by the millions of Hispanics, and the 47 percent moochers, who helped to "steal" the election from Mitt Romney.

One should not forget that the bubble of Right-wing epistemic closure and its echo chamber are real; reason cannot penetrate it. The New Right's brand of authoritarianism in the Age of Obama only gains strength the more that it is defeated and called attention to. Their reality is governed by a paradox which those who are students of empiricism, reality, and want to see a respectable Republican Party, cannot understand. We are children of the Enlightenment; the Tea Party GOP practices witchcraft, as they are carryovers from the Dark Ages. There is no compromise possible--not now or ever.

Ultimately, I do hope that all of you had a nice and restful Thanksgiving. I also hope that you resisted the pull of empty consumerism and the allure of buying cheap garbage made in China from Walmart (and other stores).

Despite, or maybe because of your respite, the enemies of decency, the Common Good, and the humanity of black and brown folks never rest. They have a news network, websites, talk radio shows, and a TV network to disseminate the propaganda of the White Right.

Apparently, in a sea of wretched, multiracial humanity, the only person that matters for the White Gaze is an older white woman, apparently washed away by a mass of negritude that churns, moves, and swallows her whole: it is negro quicksand, undulating, hungry, and desirous of White flesh. Will the other decent white people, shopping for cheap crap in the midst of a sea of melanin stew and sticky tar baby coloreds, with their heavy paws yearning for cheap prepaid cellphones and white flesh, be able to escape the burr haired mass?

I have friends and family who have immersed themselves in this Drudge/talk radio garbage after years of being relatively sane, mainstream conservatives. It's now impossible to talk with them about politics. They live in an alternate reality with all kinds of "facts" that are either totally decontextualized or just mythical. The drugs metaphor is apt, I have a dear friend who I now avoid talking to because our conversations devolve into me disputing Michael Savage talking points and Drudge articles. He has become a different person.

The power of this kind of white supremacist propaganda is truly frightening. The question is, what can be done to combat it?

@Wernor. Savage is dangerous. Have you ever tried to listen to him? They have created their own reality. If you are not part of it, you are not capable of even deciphering its codes and rituals. One day I would like to edit a volume, or write a book about the magical thinking and occult/secret society aspect of right wing media.

@Anon. Choose a name. Don't throw around the word "hate" so casually. Critical thinking and plain speaking about empirical reality are not hate...thems be only the facts.

@Comrade. Madness. I will admit I am tempted to go buy Shutter Island and True Grit for 3.99 each at Best Buy though.

Not finding anywhere from your links that shows Drudge pointing fingers at black shoppers at that Wal-Mart debacle. No dearth of racist comments from others, but that's hardly a surprise given the sites. And even a few sane conservatives chastising others for blaming the phone riot on Obama.

@Mike. Are you willfully in denial? Or just very naive? Read the SPLC report, alternatively look at Drudge's long history of race baiting. Hell, use your common sense.

Out of all of the shots to use of that mayhem, why choose that one? Why make a choice to highlight one white woman in a sea of black bodies? Why choose to frame the narrative that way when the vast majority of fools were white?

Come on. You have posted here before. I am patient. This is the grown up kids table. I am not asking you to become an expert on semiotics. I only ask that if you comment here that you do so after thinking and considering the facts.

Racism is not confined to a 5th grade dictionary understanding of the term. Nor do contemporary racists, for the most part announce their bigotry. Many of them are not even conscious of it. Do some reading and work on the white racial frame, colorblind racism, and implicit bias as well. But Drudge? Come on dude, don't be so facile minded.

Why are you jumping all over MPG? I saw nothing in his post about denying the racism of Drudge, just that he couldn't find a link to the image you referenced. I was not going to bother to ask for it, but since MPG brought it up, he has a valid point.

Sometimes you grasp at straws for what, to continue to carry the water for the democratic Party?

The "selection" is over, Obama "won"!

NPR( that never challenge the liberal white elite, allowing them to think every thing is o.k. in America) is far more problematic than the Drudge Report.

At least the Drudge Report is not taking public dollars like NPR. And WBEZ in Chicago is the worst offender. And At the Drudge is an honest racist.

And Your make Consumer Zombies about "race", is utterly reckless conduct, especially for a Black man. They already think WE drop "the race card) like kids drop sunflower seed shells on the front stoop in the summer. And now you gotta do it?

The above video is about the rise of the Corporate Consumer American Zombies and nothing else. And frankly Black folk are just as infected by it, if not more so than whites. Remember it's us that shoot each other over gym shoes. This is the problem of the Black bourgeoisie, they use "race" (the power of the word) to suit their own purposes,( which weakens it) but the people who should be using it, the Black folks at the bottom of the well( discriminated against every day) never use "race" because they've not received the education too. Or no bodies listening to them any way.

if you do not understand what the game being played at Drudge is--and has been for some time--you are way way way behind the curve. This has nothing to do with Obama, this has to do with a pattern of anti-black and brown affect by Drudge and others. Your Obama conspiracy obsession has blinded you to basic matters.

Corporatism and consumerism and neo liberalism that uses racial inequality for its own ends is all related. Resist simple monocausal explanations for what you are concerned about and start thinking through why and how the Right is no animated and mired in anti-black conspiranoid madness. what are the organs in the mass media reproducing and circulating such attitudes? how are the variables related to each other?

There has been lots written about Drudge's racism and race peril narratives. He has many millions of followers and is one of the agenda setters on the Right. You do know this? Correct?

And Your make Consumer Zombies about "race", is utterly reckless conduct, especially for a Black man. They already think WE drop "the race card) like kids drop sunflower seed shells on the front stoop in the summer. And now you gotta do it?

The above video is about the rise of the Corporate Consumer American Zombies and nothing else. And frankly Black folk are just as infected by it, if not more so than whites. Remember it's us that shoot each other over gym shoes. This is the problem of the Black bourgeoisie, they use "race" (the power of the word) to suit their own purposes

IM is truth!

Accept no substitutes...,

If the nattering, chattering, hard-hustling pseudo-intellectuals jockeying for a pundit chair on the deck of the titanic had anything, and I mean anything else to talk about, they surely would.

But as it stands, race studies is putting its profound limitations on display in the aftermath of Obama's successful re-election. Can't wait till these jiggaboos begin backing the next round of fascist executive orders as though they were an enlightened new deal.

Roger Ailes should be very very proud. He has created a nation of zombies, a nation of walking dead among us. It's like the fucking invasion of the body snatchers out there.

Last week I had to have someone from my local utility company come to my house to investigate a gas leak. He seemed reasonable enough. He found the leak, red tagged it, gave me some useful advice on getting it fixed. Then we walked back to his truck. He had Rush Limbaugh playing on his radio. Rush was pontificating on Obama's win, and the doom it spelled for our great nation.

Two days later I had a plumbing/heating specialist visit to fix the leak. He was a bright young man. He was competent installing a new shut-off valve, fixing the problem. But as he worked, the conversation shifted. He began complaining about the unions, how unions were ruining this country. He actually became more and more agitated as he repeated the fox news/right wing radio talking points. I didn't want to disagree with him, because he was repairing a gas leak in my home.

Last year, I had someone visit to do some plumbing work. I think he sized me up as a "liberal" because he began a long rant against Al Gore and Barbara Streisand, calling them hypocrites for telling "the rest of us how to live" while flying around the country in their jets, etc. Because I responded with my own opinions, I think he purposely fucked up the pipes under my sink.

Every time I deal with someone in "the trades" they all seem to be infected with the virus. Two years ago I had my furnace tuned up, and the young guy who showed up started a monologue that was sneakily racist; he talked about how he had to transfer from a suburban school to an inner city school when he was a teenager, and how horrible it was. I could tell he was subtly fishing around, trying to start one of those anti-black conversations. He didn't know I'm a white guy married to a black guyanese woman. When we walked out to his truck, I saw a "Rush Is Right" bumper sticker.

I sit in my house and watch Bill Moyers, and listen to Amy Goodman, but I feel like I'm in the minority. All of the trucks driving around, all of the guys who do the maintenance work, the repairs, the contracting... they all listen to Savage, and Limbaugh, and Hannity... and they believe every bit of bullshit they hear.

@Buddy. You need to write the screenplay. They are being destroyed by their own heroes. How does that feel, this sense that because you are both "white" that you are all in league with reactionary White conservatism?

About five years ago, we bought a new toilet at the local big box store (a mistake right there). The store had one of their independent contractors install the toilet. Well, the contractor noticed the African art my wife has displayed on the walls. He said nothing, but installed the toilet. A week later, I noticed it wouldn't stop running. I called the big box store. They told me to call the contractor. When I called him, as soon as he realized who he was talking to, he muttered "oh yeah." It took two months for him to send someone out to fix the problem. The guy he sent out pulled out a part that looked like it had been stepped on. It was squashed flat. He replaced the part.I think the original guy who installed the toilet was doing his "micro-agression" part to sabotage.

Here's another anecdote: About ten years ago, my wife's car stalled out. She called "triple A" and they towed it to a garage she'd never been to before. They "fixed" the car, but a few hours later she called me in tears. She'd stalled out again. Our children were in the car seats in the back seat, aged six and four. When I had my regular mechanic check it, he said some hoses had been SLICED.

I called the first garage. The owner transferred me to the mechanic. I told hime about the hoses. He said "you can't prove anything."

More micro-agression/racist sabotage.

Fast forward to present day. We're moving. We're leaving this neighborhood. I've found about ten nails in our rear tires over the past three years. Someone doesn't want us living here. It took me three years, but I finally got the hint. We're putting this house up for sale, and getting the fuck out.

How does that feel, this sense that because you are both "white" that you are all in league with reactionary White conservatism?

Not sure what you mean by that. The racists don't see us as both white, they see us as both black. I am a southern Italian from New Jersey, with a distinct joisey accent. The white collar wasps and blue collar irishmen up here in "God's country" don't see me as white, no matter who I'm married to.

Learn to fix your own stuff. It's a whole lot cheaper in the long run and it gives you a feeling of acomplishment.

Okay, you've got a point about simple plumbing, but when it comes to a gas leak, I'm not certified to install a new shutoff valve and flex pipe. I don't mess with electricity and I don't mess with gas leaks.

Most of the problems I've seen in houses is the ridiculous, upside work of confident "do it yourself-ers" who did nothing to code, and created hazardous, unsafe conditions. I've had landlords who fixed things themselves, and felt pretty good about it, until the pipes burst.

Honestly, I don't know which is worst, the Drudge Report or the people defending it.

People (those defending Drudge), this is not about politics, although this website and others have crossed into that line for that purpose. This is about racism being perpetrated under the guise of "news sites" like The Drudge Report. Why is black pathology the main issue with that website and others even if it cuts corners to illustrate that image? And they do their best to portray black people as a race of inbred savages while having white people seen as the eternal victim of vile blackness.

People like Matt Drudge are obsessed and aroused with black people behaving badly that he may as well name his site as such. He didn't because he wants to shadow that objective in the form of an unbiased, non-racist news website.

I don't see how you naysayers can miss this simplicity of racism in conservatism. Yes, there is racism in liberalism. No one disputes that in the least. But don't sit here and claim that the Right don't have racist objectives. If you disagree, then you must live in a bubble as well, the same bubble Matt Drudge dwells in.

It's amazing that some people continue to miss that simple point. Are they so lost as to believe that up is down and right is left? SMH

@Brotha. No need to apologize. You are just expressing yourself; it is an improv session w. folks sitting in on the set.

What drudge is doing is not new. His shtick is right out of a late 19th century rag sheet--yes, including the racial panics. As I said above, I can "respect" open and honest white racists. I have had beer with a few. Drudge and his ilk are cowards.

Chauncey Devega gets full credit for the term "micro-agression." I first read the term here. Before that, I didn't have words to describe what we'd been experiencing.

Drudge, Limbaugh, Savage; they stir up their listeners. After hours and hours of this, the listeners go out and commit their little passive-agressive acts of sabotage and revenge. They feel it's the least they can do. They don't have the courage to attack and fight the "race war" they all fantasize about, but they feel they have to do something.

Mr. Devega's term "micro-agression" is an excellent description of what the Drudge followers engage in.

Things are changing while also staying much the same. Interesting times. If the big reset comes, I wonder where we will all be?

In what little remains of the u.s. economy whose continuous third-worlding is a core tenet of the second term in office script written for Obamamandius.

While the racial pundits and their understudies crank the niggaHz required to power the electron microscope required to spot racial nits, the Hon.Bro.Preznit enacts covert political and economic macro-aggressions against his endlessly suggestible food-powered, make-work constituents...,

Speaking of Jack-and-Jill politics, I had to set up a voice message broadcast for Ron Kirk archon/basileus/poobah recording the invitation to the Boule and spouses inviting them to a fancy reptilian soiree.

This jiggaboo insisted on leading in with 15-20 seconds of derivative Kenny G noodling like he was recording a greeting on his 1984 answering machine.

Somehow, it was simply beyond his comprehension that people don't want to listen to any of that horseshyte, and that if he could get to the gist in about 30 seconds total/tops, the percentage of folks hanging up on the message would drop off precipitously.

Good times, good times with negroe gatekeepers and lion-tamers central to the fin d'siecle imperial circus....,

This type of ignorance is colorblind. Black Friday Violence: 2 Shot Outside Walmart; Scuffles Across the U.S.

http://bit.ly/10ROB4Mhttp://on.tdo.com/UTVHQJ

However, in all fairness it should be called White Friday in honor of Edward Bernays.

[The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons—a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty million—who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

In theory, everybody buys the best and cheapest commodities offered him on the market. In practice, if everyone went around pricing, and chemically testing before purchasing, the dozens of soaps or fabrics or brands of bread which are for sale, economic life would become hopelessly jammed. To avoid such confusion, society consents to have its choice narrowed to ideas and objects brought to its attention through propaganda of all kinds. There is consequently a vast and continuous effort going on to capture our minds in the interest of some policy or commodity or idea.

As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented.] -- "Propaganda" by Edward Bernays (1928)

@Buddy. Not my term, but a useful one. The sum effect of those micro aggressions is bad for your health. You got to destress.

@Cnu. Soylent green is people! Kidding? Not sure. On a lighter note the number of adult diapers sold in Japan to adults surpassed that of those sold to babies this year. How is Japan going to move into the future as their population is dying off?

@MB. Good old Eddie. He is one of the most influential people in modern history. So few know his name. In one of my classes I have the students watch 2 parts of Century of Self. The sheeple disengage, a good number are in denial and scared, and a few are angry. The latter likely know something is up and are thinking already. The masses are made uncomfortable when you point out the limits of their faux autonomy. Then they go back to playing on their ipods and shopping again.

@MPG, @Nomad, @CNU and @IM, there is no need for CDV to provide a link that corroborates with his essay. We need to consider and look no further than the Drudge’s long history of flaming the fires of resentment targeting minorities and Blacks in particular. Granted, the image does depict a Black-American imbecile behaving just like an average criminal at a Walmart’s Black Friday. The image posted by the Drudge is much more far reaching without actually saying that Blacks were the instigator of problems at this particular event. The image alone speaks volumes. Hell….., I don’t need a White Supremacist to stand on my lawn with a sign that states, “Ni&&A Black Sage” (he better not) before I begin to believe that he despises me and the probability the he hate others of my skin tone.

You guys are killing me softly and I haven’t thought on this elementary level approximately thirty-something years ago.

Just like in 1989, then Pres. George Bush I stated to the American people in a State of the Union Address regarding the presupposition of the proliferation of illicit drugs in this United Empire of States: “But there is no match for a united America, a determined America, an angry America. Our outrage against drugs unites us, brings us together behind this one plan of action -- an assault on every front”.

In January of this year, then Presidential Silly Candidate Santorum stated: ”I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money. (parasite comment referring to Blacks)”

George Bush’s and Rick Santorum’s strategies applied then, just as it does with the Drudge’s Report regarding the Walmart incident. Everyone knew who then King George was referring to (e,g, minorities in general, but Blacks in particular). All of these incidents and coincidences harkens back to the Southern Strategy. That is, Whites/Tea Party/ GOP members must never overtly say, “Ni&&a, Ni&&a, Ni&&a, but covertly say it by other means even if mere imagery is to be utilized.

Here, the end does justify the means because we have people like those listed above who’d much rather think on the proverbial shallow level and quickly adorn easily accessible blinders; view the world through obscured lens, as opposed to seeing things just as they are and judging people by their actions alone and refrain from demeaning an entire group of people via the act of a single Black idiot.

Kwestin; If the energy and money dependent consumer supply chain collapses tomorrow (the reset), will a higher percentage of blacks or whites be ass-out for their next 6 primary meals? (that's my measure of the thickness of human civilization and civility)

Kwestin; If the energy and money dependent consumer supply chain collapses tomorrow (the reset), will a higher percentage of blacks or whites be ass-out for their next 6 primary meals? (that's my measure of the thickness of human civilization and civility) – CNU

Well, according to a report by the United States Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), Whites as a group is in fact the largest group by percentage of recipients on Food Stamps and therefore, you guys will be assed-out the most. There is a long held myth that Blacks hold this much maligned position on top of the Food Stamp chart.

I perfectly understand that Drudge report is racist. But it's flawed to connect white Black Friday shoppers to racist whites, and Matt Drudge when it's much bigger. What's next? You're screaming wolf with race, lessons the impact. It's like your borrowing the word for it's "shock" to go after drudge because your insulated from racism. Use the word when it's needed not for cheap political points, yo!

@IM "You're screaming wolf with race, lessons the impact." You logic is very slippery. So we should not call a thing what it is? That is a cousin to a move by hegemonic Whiteness where racism doesn't occur unless it satisfies the decision rule of white folks? Likewise, despite all that we know about the lived realities of white supremacy in this society, you are proceeding from a decision rule that racism does not exist until we prove that it does?

Be careful. You are falling into a dangerous trap where you are looking for the "big" things, i.e. overt racism and kkk hoods and the prison industrial complex. But you are not seeing that there is a matrix of power relationships. The massaging of the public mood and consciousness by Drudge and others is the lived reality, the lifeworlds, how day to day understandings of race and power, are created.

Drudge and the Right-wing media and other organs of power reinforce, circulate, disseminate, create, and justify white supremacy. You can ignore them if you like.

As you grow in an understanding of structures and develop a keen dislike of "racism chasing" do not forget how the battlefield is being prepared. You are right to not want to get mired in tactics (especially the trifling mess that most complain about), but tactics are a complement to logistics and strategy. Both matter; one's doctrine has to be complementary and fit one another.

Drudge and his ilk are the direct heirs of the rag sheets that helped to gin up racial violence and mob action against black and brown people in this country for at least two centuries. They are still serving that function in an age of colorblind metaracism. Don't sleep brother.

Chauncey, I'm not disagreeing with you about Drudge, but but but, there is no connection between consumer zombies in Walmart and the racist Drudge report, in that said behavior had nothing to do with race, but every thing to do with materialism, an infection that is with out par in the Black community. And, I still say Public Radio Stations like Chicago's WBEZ is far more harmful than the Drudge Report because it keeps white liberals politically inert and ignores the plight of the the most oppressed,poor, and politically disenfranchised, which happens to be Black poor people. And they do this as they accept our public dollars. Your focus on Drudge and his type is like talking about how dirty your neighbors house is when yours is just as dirty, If we are gonna hold this President accountable, then we better have media sources who are willing to tell the truth.

@IM. You are misunderstanding me. Of course, consumerism is the problem here. I chose to focus on how Drudge Frames such consumerist foolishness--and did this explicitly in what I wrote--as a matter of black degeneracy and "rampages."

Do explain as I am mighty curious, how is NPR just as "dirty" as Drudge? I know you have it in for Obama, but I would hope you are weary of false equivalency and the both sides do it nonsense that is a popular phrase for the Tea Party GOP authoritarians and their sheep. I am open to learning, please give me some examples of the malfeasance of public radio? Boring. Sure? Evil. Come on.

What would you like to see done as a matter of reasonable policy that could actually be enacted by Obama to help the most "oppressed?" Moreover, what are these sad souls doing to help themselves and to "steal" back their lost "freedom?"

Implement policy already establish for mortgage relief for one. There are so many other things he could do. Feel free to add to the list, everyone. Here's another:"Here is what the baseline should be: “Not one penny of cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or any other social insurance program, and any savings to be paid out as benefits.”"http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/11/i-can-has-shared-sacrifice.html

If he wanted to. It ain't nowhere on his agenda. 'What he can do to hep po folks!' BWWAAHHAHAHAHA...

Come on, man. Don't pretend you didn't know what you were voting for. Death by austerity!

I checked your post again and I didn't see where Drudge mentioned Black Friday? You brought it up attempting to make a point, with there's no relevant connection, between Wall Mark/Back Friday/ black rampaged, except the paper bridge you created just to drudge up Drudge.

My point about NPR is that, many of it's networks like WBEZ serves the exact purpose as Drudge and Fox News. Right wing reporting keeps middle and lower class whites trained and believing in an illusion.

WBEZ does too. Its soothing or chipper white voice of comfort an affluence, continue to feed the illusion that every thing is over all running well in America. It's a white liberal version of Andy Griffin's Mayberry. They don't go in-depth with whats really going on in the dark expanding underside of America. For instance when they report on unemployment. They never talk about those that have given up looking. And the numbers not reported because they have maxed out of their benefits. They don't talk about it with the socratic realism that Barbara Ehrenreich used in her bookNickel and Dimed or even William Julius Wilson with his book When Work Disappears. They pretend that it's a waiting game and that the next jobs report will be better, when in fact it will not, unless we make radical change.

Yet WBEZ/NPR calls it self the "alternative voice"Further they never cover Occupy Wall Street an when they did, they sounded like centrists/conservative democrats as if the idea of an uprising made them just as uncomfortable as the Republicans. Meanwhile the Republicans immediately embraced the Tea Party when they were first formed. In short NPR/WBEZ's represents what Hannah Arendt and Elie Wiesel called the Banality of Evil i.e. the Good German. The Nazi's were past insane and it became to duty of the good wise, educated German Citizen to take action. And instead they looked the other way when overwhelming evidence of suffering confronted them daily. Feel me? And I'm not even going to mention the firing of Cornel West/Tavis Smiley who were alternative voices and the only voices during the election talking about Poverty. But candidates didn't have to address Poverty because the press never asked the question. I expect fox news/Drudge not to ask. But for NPR/WBEZ, etc not to seems to meet the criteria for the banality of evil.

Finally, I'm aghast at your question(s)

"What would you like to see done as a matter of reasonable policy that could actually

and

For such a ambidextrous political and cultural intellectual such as yourself to ask me?

Again this is the crisis. The unwillingness to grapple with the underside of America, but willing to engage in petty one-ups-manship with Fox news/Drudge

But I'll be your Huckleberry. The Black community due to the criminal looting of the bankers lost more economic ground than any other group because all our our wealth was contained in home ownership. What about an executive order to stop foreclosures until new formulas for corrective action can be talking? What about the government sue Citi Ban, BOA and Chase and demand that an injunctive order be issued to stop foreclosures until a plan can be worked out where they have to actually take corrective action?

In short there is all types of programs that could be implemented. The problem is there is no urgency for it. Even with folks like yourself. To me again the banality of evil, my wise brotha. finally to your point,

"what are these sad souls doing to help themselves and to "steal" back their lost "freedom?"

Ahhh do I smell disdain for poor Black folks? You sound a bit like Drudge and Hanky. Why don't you go into Englewood and ask them since you have no ideas. I don't need to because I have al sorts of ideas. But I think I've said enough for now.

@Invisible. Hotep with your tired and dated dashiki made in Korea? With love...as always.

If you are so inclined you can search through the archives on his site and find that page with all of the assorted links about black friday. no biggie, i am surprised that you are invested in defending a racist muckraker. why is that? contrary just to be contrary?

I have explained my thesis; you are choosing not to understand the connection between his narrative, politics, and choice to use those images. Why is that?

"Ahhh do I smell disdain for poor Black folks? You sound a bit like Drudge and Hanky. "

Huh. You are suffering from a lack of precision in your claims. Drudge is drudge. Hannity is hannity. The talking point left that despises Obama just as much as the talking point Right, folks like you, are equivalent by your logic?

I am no one's savior. You can go to englewood if you like and start your own version of an afrocentric wpa program. We all have our gifts to contribute. That is not my responsibility or area of expertise.

I have disdain for ghetto underclass culture. Do no conflate poor people with degenerate culture that has no currency past a four square block area.

@IM. I expect no honesty from the mass media. Maybe I am not surprised. But again, don't conflate two very different media outlets. They are related to Power in different ways. If you want a good read check out Lippman's essays on the mass media. Or Orwell's. For graphic novels, given you are interested in the power of the mass media, read The Nightly News. Great stuff.

'i am surprised that you are invested in defending a racist muckraker.'

This here is a typical blog discussion tactic. It's a straw man. I know and you know that IM was not defending the muckraker, but was pointing out that faux liberal media does perhaps more damage because it is so insidious, reinforcing rightwing paradigms while superficially advocating liberal talking points. Their none-opposition enables the depredation of rightwingers and the PTB.

Here is something I would like for you to do, just as an exercise; as if you were one of Obama,s advisers. Answer your own question."What would you like to see done as a matter of reasonable policy that could actually be enacted by Obama to help the most "oppressed?"

Obama doesn't know what to do and Obama's advisors don't know what to do either. Frankly, Obama doesn't know what to do to mitigate the inevitable effects of continuing economic contraction on the middle-class constituents who put him back into office.

"they don’t know what to do!"I'm cynical. I think that they do know what to do; and they're doing it. It's just not what any sane or moral person would want them to do. Police state, fascism and war. And impoverishment.

"Jones' name appearing on a petition connected to the events surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks."

Oh, man! The kiss of death for the administration that has been tasked with making sure no one in the previous admin is indicted. Any body with even a hint of not promoting the official fable had to go. Thx for the link, CNu.

"Under the bus with you! Move over Rev. Wright!" Must be pretty crowded down there.

ok. but srsly. what would you have him do.'never use the word "oppressed" '

He's doing that kind of thing already: Addressing problems by simply changing rhetoric and otherwise doing nothing or the opposite of what his liberal left critics suggest. Again, I put your own question back to you:

"What would you like to see DONE as a matter of reasonable POLICY that could actually be enacted by Obama to help the most ________ (some other word than)"oppressed?"

continue tax reform and enhance revenue with a millionaires surtax. explore debt forgiveness and significantly restructuring student loans and making them dischargable in bankruptcy, a serious discussion of a second WPA program--doubt it will happen--could be targeted to low income communities.

and reviewing capital investment and grants for those areas. we should also offer tax incentives for companies that do return to central cities and poor rural areas to train and hire the people who live there.

likewise, outsourcing companies should also be severely penalized and taxed at a much higher rate. corporate subsidies for industries that are not creating living wage jobs should be eliminated.

the carried interest deduction should be eliminated. i also support a guaranteed minimum income to replace subsidies such as welfare and other aid programs for the poor. the minimum wage should be raised as well.

the former would be much more substantial and effective. social security should be means tested, and when a partner dies the survivor should receive a significant percentage of their benefit. i would also cut the defense budget and the monies allotted for the cia etc.

@CDSounds reasonable. I wonder why this Obama guy is so insistent in cutting Soc Security and Medicare. Nobody's really pushing him. He's the one enthusiastically offering it up to the austerity gods. It's almost as if he wants to make living conditions worse for the poor and middle class. That's the only thing that could make it make sense. While his hands may be somewhat tied when it comes to managing the perpetual war military industrial complex, there is nothing that prevents him from taking the domestic policy steps you advise. A new WPA simply cries out to made, the need for it is so obvious. A failing infrastructure needs massive renovation. An unprecedented number of people need jobs. Seems like a no brainer to me. Unless, of course, the president has an entirely different agenda. Lessee now, what could that be? Maybe he's more interested in curtailing liberties and eroding rights of privacy and controlling the population. Maybe he's more interested in creating a police state than in creating another WPA. What do you think?

Who is Chauncey DeVega?

I am the editor and founder of We Are Respectable Negroes, as well as the host of the podcast known as "The Chauncey DeVega Show".

I am also a race man in progress, Black pragmatist, ghetto nerd, cultural critic and essayist.

I have been a guest on the BBC, Ring of Fire Radio, Ed Schultz, Make it Plain, Joshua Holland's Alternet Radio Hour, the Thom Hartmann radio show, the Burt Cohen show, and Our Common Ground.

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